The City Council has approved plans for 500 apartments in the Hacienda Business Park that will help the city meet court-approved requirements to provide more affordable housing in town.

The unanimous approval on Wednesday night OKs plans by BRE Properties, a national builder of affordable housing, to construct a mixed-use housing project with about 500 apartments plus retail space.

Fifteen percent of the apartments are to be set aside for low-income renters.

The development plan calls for 18 three- and four-story buildings on two sites south of the Dublin-Pleasanton BART station. About 8.4 acres are at the corner of Owens Drive and Willow Road, and the other site covers 8.1 acres at the northern corner of Hacienda and Gibraltar drives.

The project helps the city meet terms of a lawsuit settlement with the state and Urban Habitat, which argued that Pleasanton wasn't meeting its responsibility to provide sufficient housing at below-market sales prices and rents.

In the August 2010 settlement, the city agreed to plan for more homes and drop a voter-approved growth limit cap of 29,000 housing units in town.

"The approval of the projects with a set of conditions that are acceptable to the applicant means that we were successful in fulfilling our obligations under the settlement agreement," Brian Dolan, the city's community development director, said in an email.

Many representatives for construction unions appeared before the council Tuesday night to express their unhappiness that BRE plans to use nonunion labor in constructing the development.

See onlilne article: http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_20427376/pleasanton-approves-500-apartments-south-bart-station

OAKLAND -- Big changes are in the works for the Lake Merritt BART Station, which could soon have a new name and even less parking.

BART is seeking developers interested in transforming the two square blocks it owns above the underground station into a high-density urban hub with ground floor shops and residential towers soaring up to 400 feet.

As BART considers potential developers this spring, it also is expected to entertain a suggestion from Chinatown leaders to rename the station after its two nearest neighbors, Chinatown and Laney College.

"I think that's something the community can get behind," BART Board member Robert Raburn said. "There's no doubt that having Chinatown in the name will benefit BART and the community."

The proposed BART project is seen as a major development catalyst in and around Chinatown, where the city is preparing new land use rules that will include better bus service, more bike lanes and fewer one-way streets.

The city also has recommended that BART not replace any of the 100 spaces that would be lost to new development. Raburn said BART hasn't decided whether to replace the parking, although the presence of the train tunnel precludes underground parking on the site.

BART has begun developing its parking lots, to generate revenue and more patrons who can walk to stations. An 80-unit housing project is under way at the MacArthur Station, with BART planning to replace eight out of every 10 lost parking spaces.

Chinatown business leaders say redevelopment of the Lake Merritt Station on Oak Street between 8th and 9th streets is critical to the district's future. With commercial vacancies on the rise and more shoppers going to suburban Chinese malls, they want more housing geared for residents with disposal income.

"What we're lacking here in Chinatown is a strong consumer base, and that's why our businesses are suffering," said Jennie Ong, executive director of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. However, other groups have pushed for more affordable housing for fear that the BART project could price locals out of the neighborhood.

While BART plans to have potential developers address the community in April, the city will spend most of this year working on an environmental analysis of land use changes around the station where consensus is still being sought over funding affordable housing, setting building height limits and providing bike lanes.

Despite safety concerns from Chinatown leaders, the city remains committed to installing bike lanes along 8th and 9th streets from Broadway to Laney College, with connections south over a new bike bridge spanning Lake Merritt Channel.

The city also has proposed bike lanes on Madison, Oak, Webster and Franklin streets in Chinatown.

Other proposals include improving bus access to BART and converting 9th and 10th streets to two-way traffic. The city won't have cost estimates for many of the projects until it completes the environmental review around the end of the year, Project Manager Ed Manasse said.

See article: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oakland/ci_19790791

The Pleasanton City Council is expected to ratify tomorrow a final plan that will allow 73 acres in various parts of the city to be rezoned for high density housing.

Facing a packed meeting room last Wednesday but with almost no objections, the council approved measures the will allow developers to build apartment complexes to provide "affordable" housing on nine separate building sites scattered around the city. The city, itself, will not build any housing, but tomorrow night's rezoning action will enable developers to have an easier time in obtaining permits for multi-family, two- and three-story developments on the properties.

Although the council approved the rezoning measures 5-0 last Wednesday, the council must still ratify its vote, as required by law, at a second reading of the ordinances. That action heads the agenda of a special council meeting tomorrow, which will start at 7 p.m. in its Civic Center council chambers.

The public will then have 30 days to file any legal objections before the final document becomes part of the city's General Plan and is filed with both the Alameda Superior Court, which ordered the added housing in Pleasanton, and the state's Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) which concurred.

The actions by both the City Council last Wednesday and the city's Planning Commission earlier followed the court's ruling that declared the city's 1996 housing cap of allowing no more than 29,000 homes and apartments here to be illegal.

When the additional affordable housing units are built, along with some 650-800 units already approved in the Hacienda Business Park, the total number of homes and apartments in Pleasanton will add up to about the 29,000-unit maximum that voters in 1996 wanted. Another wave of new housing requirements expected to be imposed by the state in 2014, however, will force Pleasanton to allow far more than 29,000 units.

Tomorrow night's action also will mark a turning point in the city's long politically-motivated policy of slow growth that has been in place since the election of Mayor Ben Tarver in 1982. Mayor Tarver, who died Jan. 4, 2010, was Pleasanton's first "slow growth" mayor, actively supporting measures to slow down new home construction and an outspoken advocate of saving open space and the Pleasanton hills from business and residential development.

As mayor, he championed the 1996 housing cap ordinance that was approved by more than 80% of Pleasanton voters. He was succeeded in office by Tom Pico, and then by the city's current Mayor Jennifer Hosterman, both of whom also supported the housing cap at the time it was approved by voters.

Forced by a court order and state housing authorities to drop the cap and to now vote for a pro-growth rezoning measure, Hosterman and the other council members find themselves in charge as Pleasanton re-opens the housing growth tap. With a population based on the 2010 Census of just under 70,000, adding another 3,000 housing units, which the council is approving and with most of the units likely to have at least two-bedrooms, could bring another 9,000 residents to Pleasanton based on an estimated three-people for each new rental unit.

Council members, recognizing the overall population increase their action will mean, have expressed concern over their actions impact on schools.

At one time, the Pleasanton school district planned to build a 10th elementary school on a 13-acre site it owns on Vineyard Avenue to serve Ruby Hill and newer home developments in the vicinity. That plan was dropped for lack of funds. However, among the 9,000 new residents projected to fill the new affordable housing projects are expected to be a large percentage of younger couples with school-age children, and council members noted that more elementary schools may be needed. 

"A lot of these new units will be occupied by younger families, so we need to understand the possibly dire needs our school district will face (by this rezoning action)," said Councilwoman Cheryl Cook-Kallio. "We need to work with the district to identify the sites where those needs will be,"

Councilwoman Cindy McGovern agreed, asking city staff to make sure guidelines are in place to provide space for news schools and to make sure room for playgrounds are part of the high density housing complexes to serve the children who will live there.

"The number one reason people move here is for our excellent schools, and we don't want to lose that," McGovern said. 

City Manager Nelson Fialho said that while he and others on the city staff will work with the school district in analyzing the impact, the city and school district are separate governing agencies with no authority to co-mingle funds. He also pointed out that the court-ordered additional housing gave the city design review authority, but stipulated that few other requirements, such as special school construction fees, could be imposed.

Even though the council chambers were filled for last Wednesday night's council meeting, only 10 spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting, and only one objected to the plan. That was Pat Costanza, who represented the Kiewit-owned acreage northeast of the Valley Avenue-Stanley Boulevard intersection. Kiewit had asked to be included as a site for rezoning to allow high density housing, but was excluded pending the city's study of an East Site Specific Plan.

Other speakers said they would have liked to see changes in either the location of some of the sites or the numbers of housing units those sites could accommodate, but otherwise applauded the council's final considerations.

"Collectively, this is a very comprehensive piece of work," said Scott Raty, president of the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce. "Let's now move forward by preparing and adopting a specific plan for the east side so that we'll never be in the position again where we're forced to make housing decisions by the state or its (Department of Housing and Community Development)."

It's been more than year, since October 2010, that Pleasanton officials have been addressing the city's share of the region's housing needs, which both the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the HCD have long said was inadequate.

In fact, critics addressed the city's lack of so-called workforce housing shortly after the 1996 housing cap was approved. The HCD insisted that the city rezone more land to accommodate the city's need for affordable housing nearly a decade ago, and eventually reversed its approval of the city's housing element plan because the city failed to meet those requirements. A local affordable housing group, Citizens for a Caring Community, has repeatedly asked the council to provide more housing for those who can't afford the cost of most homes and apartments here.

One of its members, former Councilwoman Becky Dennis, told the council Wednesday that the city should raise its requirement for affordable units from 15% to at least 20% for each new development so as to reduce the need for more housing requirements by the state.

In a letter to the HCD, Dennis and Pat Belding, the Caring Community organization's chairwoman, urged the state agency to raise the city's requirement for housing units for the very-low income group much higher.

Citing the city's zoning approval for an affordable housing complex in Hacienda Business Park, the organization's letter stated: "Zoning for an additional 305 (very low income) units should be added back for a total unmet need of 844 VLO residential units."

Still, Urban Habitat, an Oakland-based affordable housing coalition that successfully pursued a suit again Pleasanton over both its housing cap and unmet affordable housing needs, and the HCD appear to be satisfied with Wednesday's council actions. It's likely that after next Tuesday's ratification and the 30-day waiting period for legal objections, that city staff can proceed with the actual rezoning actions.

In the council's latest action, the sites will be rezoned to accommodate 1,884 apartment units at a ratio of 30 units per acre, with 400 more at 40 units per acre. Most apartment structures in Pleasanton are in the range of 20-25 units per acre.

The sites to be rezoned include: 

BART-owned property at 5835 and 5859 Owens Drive; the Sheraton property at 5990 Stoneridge Mall Road; 10 acres of the Stoneridge Shopping Center property at 1008-2481 Stoneridge Mall Road; Kaiser-owned property at 5620 Stoneridge Mall Road; properties owned by CM Capital Properties at 5758 and 5850 West Las Positas Blvd.; Pleasanton Gateway property at 1600 Valley Ave.; Auf der Maur/ Rickenbach-owned property at 3150 Bernal Ave.; the Nearon property at 5725 West Las Positas Blvd., and 8.4 acres of the CarrAmerica property at 4452 Rosewood Drive.

See article: http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/news/show_story.php?id=8483

Video: Mark Jones Reports

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco and Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives) brought holiday tidings to the Bay Area today in the form of a nearly $5 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) 2011 Sustainable Communities Program. Awarded to MTC and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the $4.991 million federal grant is one of the largest Regional Planning grants handed out by HUD this year, and the Bay Area is one of just 29 regional areas nationwide that received the grants.

Pelosi announced the grant at a press conference held at Richardson Apartments at 365 Fulton Street at Gough in San Francisco, chosen because it exemplifies the type of sustainable and affordable development to be fostered by the grants. The facility includes 120 permanent, supportive residential studio units for extremely low income, chronically homeless individuals.

"Securing the Sustainable Communities grant is not only a tribute to the hard work and innovative spirit of San Francisco; it reflects a strong partnership between local leaders and the federal government," Pelosi said. "With the Sustainable Communitiesi grant and the development of the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Prosperity Plan, we are connecting affordable housing to transit to good jobs and businesses."

In addition to Pelosi, two MTC commissioners spoke at the event: David Campos, who is a San Francisco supervisor, and Mark Green, mayor of Union City and president of ABAG.

HUD's Sustainable Communities Regional Planning grants are given to support regional planning efforts that integrate housing, land-use, economic and workforce development, transportation, and infrastructure developments to create more jobs and economic opportunities.

MTC and ABAG will use the funding to develop and implement a Regional Prosperity Plan in conjunction with local partners. The two major, interconnected areas of work are a community-rooted process to develop and implement a regional Economic Opportunity Strategy to expand economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income residents; and the implementation of a Housing the Workforce strategy that would create and preserve housing affordable to low-income workers.

The grant application identified a number of pilot projects that potentially could be implemented during the course of the three-year grant, such as a workforce training or job placement program for low- and moderate-income workers in a particular industry of opportunity; the development of small business clusters in new industries; and creation of a database that would match up low-income residents with affordable transportation and housing options.

The effort also will involve extensive outreach. In the words of the grant application, "The Development of the Economic Opportunity Strategy and the Housing the Workforce Component will be done in partnership with underrepresented communities, not just for them."

The MTC/ABAG grant application was cosponsored by some 20 cities and counties as well as more than a dozen nonprofit partners. The partner agencies will match the HUD grant with $2.383 million, bringing the total program budget to $7.375 million.

See also:

• Abstract: San Francisco Bay Area Regional Prosperity Plan (PDF)
• ABAG-MTC List of Partners: HUD Regional Planning Grant (PDF)
• Details on the Grant Application (PDF)
• HUD's Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grants Page: List of 2011 Recipients, Project Summaries and Map of Grantees

Source: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/news/current_topics/11-11/hud.htm

In the midst of the pandemonium in Oakland this week, the City of Oakland quietly released a key document (PDF) that promises to reshape a major Oakland neighborhood just north of downtown.

At a meeting of the Community Stakeholders Group last night, Oct. 27, the City presented and facilitated a discussion on the Draft Plan Concept (PDF) for the Broadway-Valdez Specific Plan, just released this week. Greenbelt Alliance is pleased that much of the document mirrors what we outlined in the Better Broadway vision (PDF), which we unveiled along with eight other environmental, housing, and social justice groups at our big launch back in April. But there’s still more work to be done to ensure this is a complete community.

How does the Draft Plan Concept measure up to what Greenbelt Alliance has pushed for in the plan? Let’s take a look.

The Good

Overall

• The plan seeks to be market-driven and incremental, making it more likely to be successful in the long run.

Retail

• Short-term strategies to activate the area, including but not limited to improvements to public spaces, parklets, façade improvement incentives, and extended Free “B” shuttle service, are all promising.
• The plan balances the desire for local and national retailers, both small and large.
• The plan mentions the goal of having quality jobs in the area.

Housing

• We said we wanted at least 1,800 homes in the area, 300-500 of them affordable. The City has said they want 1,800 homes in the area, 300-500 of them affordable–but has also said they’re open to the plan having as few as 900 homes. So, while this goal has not exactly been met, we are pleased to see progress here. Previously, the City did not envision more than 1,300 homes in the area.
• The City would like at least 15% of housing in the area to be affordable.
• We appreciate the focus on workforce housing in the area’s North End, giving Pill Hill employees and others nearby the chance to live near work.

Parking

• The City proposes a possible Parking Benefits District for the area, which could do wonders in terms of funding streetscape and other improvements that would keep the area looking nice and benefit those living, working, and shopping here.
• New parking for retail will only be provided on an as-needed basis, which will save the City money and make development more feasible here.
• Pricing is mentioned as one tool to manage and minimize the demand for parking.
• New parking will be phased down in each wave of development as greater investment comes to the area and transit service improves along with the increased demand for it.
• No new surface parking lots—all parking will be wrapped by building façades or buried in underground garages.

Access for Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Those on Transit

• The focus on high-quality public spaces, including pedestrian-only paseos, is an excellent way to draw people into the area on foot and make the area more pleasant for everyone. We also like the widened sidewalks and bulbouts.
• New bike lanes and bike amenities are proposed, making the area friendlier to those traveling on two wheels instead of four. The City will clean up and enhance the underpasses beneath 580 on both Broadway and Piedmont Avenue; these improvements are sorely needed and will help attract Pill Hill workers into the area.
• We are pleased to see plenty of wayfinding signage, transit enhancements, and the accommodation of the proposed streetcar.

Open Space

• Featured in the plan is new open space, including the addition of a linear park along Glen Echo Creek.

The Unclear and Maybe Ominous

• We are a bit anxious about the lack of clarity on the proposed parking ratios for retail, housing, and commercial land uses.
• We are concerned that the City’s range of proposed retail in the plan area – 800,000 to 1.4 million square feet – remains too high to be realistic and feasible for the area, given the uncertainty of retail in today’s economy.
• As mentioned earlier, we had called for at least 1,800 homes, 300-500 of them affordable. We are disappointed that the plan has stated 1,800 as the maximum number of new homes rather than the minimum, as we had requested.
• The plan mentions minimum floor plate requirements for sites in the Valdez Triangle that are adequately sized for major anchor stores, have good visibility, and enjoy excellent accessibility. We are eager to know more about what these minimum floor plate requirements will be.
• The proposed “Retail Before Residential” policy in five retail priority areas in the Valdez Triangles could prohibit housing development from catalyzing the retail renaissance the City seeks. We don’t want to see a situation where we spend decades waiting for retail to arrive on a site that instead remains idle and underutilized. The City has more work to do in ensuring this does not happen. Given the pressing need for jobs in Oakland, we simply can’t afford to excessively postpone investment and economic revitalization.
• We want to hear more about what kind of “quality jobs” are planned for the area, and how the jobs will benefit Oakland’s workforce.
• The City has said that some housing development could be accommodated in a number of blocks just outside the plan boundaries, an area roughly defined by being east of Webster Street and between 26th and 32nd Streets. We would like to hear more about how many homes could fit in this area, and why this land is not included in the plan area so it can be governed by the new policies we adopt in the Specific Plan.
• While mixed-use development is generally an excellent goal and makes for vibrant and walkable neighborhoods, we want to avoid a plan that mandates too many mixed-use buildings, or prohibits housing on the ground floor, especially on blocks where ground-floor shops or offices may not be feasible. These kinds of policies, when applied too broadly, can also have the impact of limiting where affordable homes can be built.

The Upshot

All in all, Greenbelt Alliance is extremely encouraged by the way this plan has evolved over the years we have been involved in this campaign. We are pleased the plan has become more oriented around pedestrians and less focused on cars and costly excess parking. The plan has made great strides in terms of feasibility and in terms of embracing a nuanced and thoughtful approach to development, on everything from infill housing to adaptive reuse.

It is more responsive to the need to make this area a complete community, with shops, jobs, and services that residents need in addition to dining, entertainment, and retail that will attract people from other communities to spend time here. We are optimistic that the Draft Plan, which we expect the City to release next spring, will show further signs of progress. Kudos to City staff for making these major improvements.

The City will make edits to the current document, and release a final draft of the Plan Concept by Dec. 1. The City of Oakland has also announced Thursday, Dec. 8, from 6-8 p.m., as the Public Meeting on the Plan Concept. The meeting will be held at the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Save the date, and please tell others. In the meantime, please take the time to read the Draft Plan Concept and come to the December meeting with your perspective! Or, send them your feedback in writing.

Source: http://growsmartbayarea.org/gs_news/2011/10/occupy-broadway-with-smart-growth/

GCC Partners Karen Chapple of the Center for Community Innovation and Amanda Bornstein of Greenbelt Alliance speak as guest experts on transit-oriented development on KPFA's "Terra Verde" show.

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/71555

The City of Pittsburg is considering an ambitious development plan for land surrounding its BART station that officials expect to adopt in August.

The plan encompasses a 50-acre site, including the BART station and vacant lands adjacent to the station, and calls for up to 1,200 residential units, 130,000 square feet of commercial space including 30,000 for retail, and 2,300 parking spaces in two garages.

City and BART officials have been working on developing the master plan for the site for three years thanks to a planning grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. An environmental impact report is under review through Aug. 1, after which the City Council expects to approve the plan.

“With the (environmental review) out the way, the progress of the project will happen as fast as the development community can go,” said Loreli Cappel, who worked on the proposal with PMC, a municipal services firm specializing in environmental and urban planning.

Once the plan is adopted, BART will select a master developer for the project. So far, West Coast Homebuilders has signed on to develop a portion of the residential units.

The project calls for $56.9 million infrastructure improvements, including new streets, a kiss-and-ride, sanitary sewers, two parking garages and a park.

Pittsburg, a city in eastern Contra Costa County, is home to the end of one of three East Bay BART lines. The station already draws hundreds of motorists from eastern Contra Costa and the San Joaquin Valley who park there and commute west. The goals of the project include increasing BART ridership, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating more services near transit and improving pedestrian and bike access.

BART has several other transit-oriented development projects in the works in the East Bay: at both Dublin stations, Union City, Walnut Creek, San Leandro and MacArthur in Oakland.

“The scale of the projects can be rewarding,” said Cynthia Parker, president and CEO of Bridge Housing, a nonprofit developer that is the master developer of the MacArthur project and is also part of the San Leandro team. “We certainly plan to do other TOD projects with these agencies, but they take a very long time.”

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/print-edition/2011/07/08/pittsburg-thinks-big-with-bart-area-plan.html?response=no&page=all (Subscription Required)

It is encouraging that the census statistics cited in The Press Democrat’s March 11 editorial (“Census 2010”) support that Sonoma County has done a good job of stopping sprawl. As the editorial states, this is due in part to our urban-growth boundaries, policy tools that guide development toward urban areas and away from open space.

These growth boundaries surround all nine cities in the county. However, it is imperative that Sonoma County residents stay engaged to ensure that we protect our open space and farmland for future generations.

It is significant that Sonoma County voters have taken land-use control as it relates to sprawl out of the hands of elected officials. By directly approving growth boundaries to preserve the “country in the city” feeling we enjoy in Sonoma County, voters have made clear that they value our open space and agricultural lands, and by so doing, Sonoma County is somewhat insulated from the common problems of sprawl.

Nevertheless, we cannot rest easy on our laurels. Urban-growth boundaries need to be renewed every 20 years. Over the next few election cycles, voters will have to say yes again to keep the valuable protections in place. In 2010, Santa Rosa and Petaluma did just that by renewing their urban-growth boundaries.

Once the recession recedes, and growth trends reappear, sprawl may become a threat again. Future development should be focused around the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train depots in mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods. It is critical that pedestrian-oriented development becomes the norm and that smart growth advocates work closely with developers and city leadership to craft plans that can guide development to create vibrant and great communities.

The cities of Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Cloverdale and Healdsburg are currently doing station area planning for the neighborhoods around future SMART train stations. These plans present an important opportunity for residents to influence decision-making and ensure that the development of the future does not make the same mistakes of the past.

Public engagement in these processes will lead to a more relevant and honest assessment of the needs of the rapidly changing and increasingly diverse population.

By 2035, the nine-county Bay Area is expected to add more than 900,000 new households and 1.2 million new jobs. Some of that growth will likely occur in Sonoma County. Through community involvement and thoughtful policies, such as urban-growth boundaries, we can keep new development off open space and reinvest in existing city centers.

We can build communities with a variety of homes all residents can afford, close to parks, transportation, shopping and other necessities. And with these efforts, we can maintain the sense of place that we love about Sonoma County.

Amanda Bornstein is a field representative for Greenbelt Alliance, and Dennis Rosatti is executive director of Sonoma County Conservation Action.

Source: http://www.watchsonomacounty.com/2011/03/county/guest-opinion-we-must-continue-to-fight-sprawl/